All 16 charges that an Orleans Parish grand jury brought against Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill in July have been dismissed, Murrill confirmed in a press release.
This comes after New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno and five city councilmembers sent a letter on Tuesday (July 21) to Special Prosecutor Laurie White, asking her to drop the case completely.
“This request is not driven by fear, politics, or personal interest,” the letter said. “It is driven by our belief that the public interest is now better served by moving forward rather than by prolonging litigation.”
Officials also stressed the jury conducted its business independently. Murrill’s defense team had alleged the jury acted improperly, including allegedly leaking information to the press.
Retired judge Calvin Johnson and New Orleans District Attorney Jason Williams also wrote their own letters to the special prosecutor, asking her to dismiss the charges.
In her statement, Murrill defended her innocence. She also said she would continue to investigate what she called the "irresponsible and illegal actions that led to this abuse of the criminal justice system."
Why Murrill was indicted
Murrill was indicted on July 2, accused of threatening the jobs of city officials in letters she sent to them in May.
Murrill’s 16-count indictment includes 8 counts of malfeasance in office and 8 counts of intimidation and retaliation, according to a copy of the indictment obtained by WWNO.
Each count is tied to the individual letters Murrill sent to Moreno; Williams; Johnson; City Council President J.P Morrell; City Councilmembers Aimee McCarron, Freddie King III, Jason Hughes and Matthew Willard.
The five council members voted in favor of a special election in November for a combined clerk of court for Orleans Parish. They — along with Moreno and Williams — argued that recently passed legislation that abolished the Orleans Parish clerk of criminal court position had also created a new combined clerk position that needed to be filled. The city appointed Johnson to the position on an interim basis.
In the letters, Murrill said the legislation instead named Orleans Parish Clerk of Civil Court Chelsea Richard Napoleon as the combined clerk of court, and she’d take legal action to remove the officials from office if they held the election for clerk of court, or appointed Johnson.
Moreno and the five city council members who received the letters swiftly rebuked the attorney general’s guidance in videos posted on social media.
“It is surprising that the attorney general put all of this in a letter, considering that there is a criminal law that prohibits intimidation,” Moreno said in an Instagram video at the time.
Murrill’s appeal
The case quickly spiraled beyond New Orleans. In a post on social media that came almost immediately after the indictment was announced, Gov. Jeff Landry called the grand jury a “circus” and a “kangaroo court.” He also said he plans to pardon Murrill “as fast as the law allows.”
In response, Laurie White, a retired Orleans Parish criminal court judge appointed as a special prosecutor, told reporters outside the Orleans Criminal District Court building, “Good, let’s get her convicted, and then he can pardon her.”
Landry later said he’d ordered the Louisiana State Police to investigate “the alleged improprieties of this grand jury and those who ran it!”
Murrill appealed to the state Supreme Court later that evening.
The court put a stay on the indictment on July 3, writing Murrill was likely to succeed in appealing the case, either due to legal merits or “apparent procedural irregularities.” Three judges dissented.
The warrant for Murrill’s arrest, however, remained active even after the stay — until Murrill successfully appealed it. The same three judges dissented in that decision, too.
One of them, Judge John Guidry, accused the majority of giving Murrill “preference and priority” by ruling on the stay “without even allowing the ink to dry on the indictment.”
“This is not supposed to be how the system works,” he wrote.
Orleans Parish officials withdrew the warrant shortly after the second ruling.
A wild scene at the court
Reporters at the scene on July 2 were threatened with arrest if they entered the courtroom — despite state law that says a jury’s verdict must happen in open court. Times-Picayune reporter James Finn said at least one reporter — WWL TV’s Danny Montverde — was led away from the courthouse in handcuffs.
In a filing to the Louisiana Supreme Court, Judge Leon Roché, who presided over the case, defended the grand jury process, writing that an open court “does not mean open to the public.”
“Out of an abundance of caution for the grand jurors’ safety and anonymity, the Court admonished the media to not speak with or film any grand jurors, and then instructed deputy sheriffs to clear the courtroom when the grand jurors were entering the courtroom,” he wrote. “The court never instructed deputy sheriffs to remand or detain any members of the media.”
On July 8, all 12 criminal court judges in New Orleans — including Roché — recused themselves from Murrill’s indictment proceedings.
The justices petitioned the high court to appoint an outside judge to avoid conflicts of interest and to let the grand jury process play out.
The next day, the state Supreme Court appointed retired judge Robert A. Chaisson to oversee the case.
Landry’s back-and-forth with New Orleans
The case escalated again on July 9, when Moreno announced the city would withdraw a request for approval from the state Bond Commission to seek a private loan, because the city heard a denial was “imminent.” The city was seeking the money as it grapples with a multi-million dollar budget deficit.
Moreno also alleged state officials — who she did not name — may be seeking “separate punitive actions aimed at the city and the City's finances.”
Landry responded to the statement on social media, saying the city’s decision to withdraw is “unacceptable and raises serious concerns about management and transparency.”
Moreno then asked the governor to meet in person instead of communicating through letters.
In a follow-up social media post, Landry wrote he understood why Moreno would not want to communicate through letters, “as that seems to be an indictable offense in the City of New Orleans,” referencing Murrill’s indictment.
White, Williams subpoenaed
On July 14, Chaisson granted the defense’s request to issue subpoenas to White and Williams relating to the indictment.
Murrill’s camp sought correspondence between Williams, members of New Orleans’ city government, the news media and White on the grand jury proceedings — ostensibly to prove allegations of improper conduct by the jury and prosecution.
As someone who received alleged intimidation from Murrill, Williams had recused himself in the case early on, and Roché — who was overseeing the case at the time — appointed White. Part of the reason Murrill alleges wrongdoing in the grand jury is a conflict of interest with White, as the Attorney General’s office is representing her in a separate sexual harassment case.
White and Williams then filed separate motions to quash the subpoenas. In her filing, White said Murrill failed to identify any single document in the subpoena. White also condemned Murrill for targeting her and Williams in the subpoenas, writing that no state court had ever allowed a defendant to conduct a “retaliatory campaign” against a prosecutor.
It was not clear if a hearing over the subpoenas would still be held, and when.
